WHAT’S IN YOUR WARDROBE? – Part 3 of 5

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”  (Colossians 3:12 NIV)

HUMILITY

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’” (Matthew 18:1 ESV)

Who is the greatest? It evokes the very essence of ego. I heard an apt acronym the other day for E.G.O. -- Edging God Out. "Greatest" language activates the cancerous plague of all human cultures (especially internet culture): comparison. It creates a universe of competition where there can be only one winner and an infinity of losers.

Jesus blows up the question and destroys the category.

“And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’"  (Matthew 18:2–5 ESV)

In lifting up the child as the example, Jesus is not driving at child-like whimsy with rainbows and unicorns. He's exalting extreme humility. He's crushing status barriers, destroying prestige markers, and otherwise eviscerating any shred of human qualification anyone might bring to the table. And let's be clear, He's not handing out participation trophies to mediocre people. He's passing out divine commendations, and they are in endless supply. With a mere thirty-four words He reinterprets the way to greatness from measuring up to measuring down.

Humility is not self-abnegation; it is God-exaltation. Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is not lowering yourself; it is lifting up others.

True humility is becoming so enraptured with Jesus you've taken on His likeness. His mindset has become your mentality.

-- Excerpted from “Wake-Up Call” with J. D. Walt 

#6478

GOD’S RELENTLESS LOVE

It's safe to give ourselves up to God's love.  He created us out of love and His love is never wearied or worn out by our sins.  He is relentless in His pursuit of us and in His determination that one day we will be pure love, at whatever cost to us or to Himself.

"Good and upright is the Lord," the psalmist reminds us, "therefore He instructs sinners in His ways.  He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way" (Psalm 25:8-9, italics added).  The only requirement is humility and the patience to wait for His working.  God is not known for haste, but He does mean business. 

-- David Roper in “Growing Slowly Wise” 

#6399

TWELVE ORDINARY MEN – Part 3 of 4

Christ’s choice of the apostles testifies to the fact that God can use the unworthy and the unqualified. He can use nobodies. They turned the world upside down, these twelve (Acts 17:6).  It was not because they had extraordinary talents, unusual intellectual abilities, powerful political influence, or some special social status. They turned the world upside down because God worked in them to do it.

God chooses the humble, the lowly, the meek, and the weak so that there’s never any question about the source of power when their lives change the world. It’s not the person; it’s the truth of God and the power of God in the person. (We preachers need to remind ourselves of this. It’s not our cleverness or our personality. The power is in the Word -- the truth that we preach -- not in us.) And apart from one Person -- one extraordinary human being who was God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ -- the history of God’s work on earth is the story of His using the unworthy and molding them for His use the same careful way a potter fashions clay. The Twelve were no exception to that…

Let’s not, however, underestimate the importance of their office. Upon their selection, the twelve apostles in effect became the true spiritual leaders of Israel… The apostles became the preachers of the new covenant. They were the ones to whom the Christian gospel was first entrusted… They became the foundation stones of the church, with Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). Those truths are heightened, not diminished, by the fact that these men were so ordinary. 

-- Excerpts from “Twelve Ordinary Men: How the Master Shaped His Disciples for Greatness and What He Wants to Do with You” by John MacArthur

#6086

CHOOSING HUMILITY OVER PRIDE

“For who considers you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”  (1 Corinthians 4:7 NASB)

Former Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey tells the story of a humbling visit to a restaurant. The waiter brought over the rolls, but no butter. “May I have some butter, please?” Bradley asked.

The waiter gave a slight nod and wandered off, but ten minutes later, no butter. Bradley caught the waiter’s eye. “May I please have some butter?” The waiter barely acknowledged the request. After ten more minutes, still no butter.

“Maybe you don’t know who I am,” said Bradley. “I’m a Princeton graduate, a Rhodes scholar, and an All-American basketball player who played for the New York Knicks in the pros. I’m currently a United States senator from New Jersey, chairman of the International Debt Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee, chairman of the Water and Power Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and a member of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee.”

“Maybe you don’t know who I am,” said the waiter. “I’m the guy who’s in charge of the butter.”

What happened after that is unknown, but occasionally we all need to have someone burst our balloon of self-importance and bring us back to reality. Such experiences are healthy because they help us maintain a proper perspective about our accomplishments. Pride is an attitude that causes us to credit ourselves for our accomplishments and to blame others for our failures. On the other hand, humility is an attitude that views both our accomplishments and our failures from God’s perspective.

“God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  (James 4:6b NASB)  

-- Robert Jefferies in “Choose Your Attitude, Change Your Life”

#5958

 

RESPONDING TO PEOPLE

Editor’s Note: This past Sunday our Pastor, in his sermon series on the Beattitudes, focused on Matthew 5:5. “Blessed are the meek/gentle/humble, for they will inherit the earth.” In his sermon he put up on the screen the following message from Paul:

“Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.”

-- Paul, in his letter to Titus (3:1-11 NIV)

#5912

GOD GIVES HUMILITY

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  (Philippians 2:5-8 ESV)

The chief mark of a Christian is humility.  But we are not saints, we confess to ourselves, and don't expect to be.  God is holy, but we are not.  Christ is humble.  We are far from it.  We admire the ideal.  But we consider reaching it unattainable.  Our conduct lags behind our creed.  We go around with a cloud of hopelessness hanging overhead.

But don't you see, as long as we think of humility as an ideal, beautiful but unattainable, that we will never even try for it?  Don't you see that even with all our theology about Christ saving us, if we flinch under every humiliation, and fail to see God's hand upon us, we will never be what we can be?  The first mark of a Christian is humility.  It is not easy to reach.  It was not easy for Jesus.  Don't think it was!  He prayed and struggled.  He was tempted like us.

"God …. gives humility," says Thomas Kelly.  "Growth in humility is a measure of our growth in the habit of the Godward-directed mind.  And he only is near to God who is exceedingly humble … There is a humility that is in God Himself.  Be ye humble as God is humble." (Thomas Kelly, “A Statement of Devotion”)  God gives humility to us. 

-- H.S. Vigeveno in “Jesus the Revolutionary”

#5842

THE WONDROUS GIFT

How silently, how silently,
the wondrous gift is given;
so God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
but in this world of sin,
where meek souls will receive Him, still
the dear Christ enters in.  (From “O Little Town of Bethlehem” by Phillips Brooks)

This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ. 

-- Frank McKibben

#5759

HOW TO FINISH WELL – Part 4 of 6

How do we finish well?... First, those who finish well have a Christ-centered life… Second, those who finish well have a focused life… Third, those who end well have disciplined lives.

A fourth characteristic of those who finish well is that they have a teachable spirit through life. “Teachable” means that they maintain a humble posture and are open to receiving midcourse corrections. Those who finish well never stop doing this. They are life-long learners. They learn from reading, from watching and listening to others, and from life itself. This keeps them from plateauing. Paul was like this. At the very end of his life, in the closing request of his last letter, he says to Timothy, “When you come… also bring my books.” (2 Timothy 4:13 NLT). He was still learning and teachable, right to the very end.

-- Adapted from Donald W. Sweeting and George Sweeting in “How to Finish the Christian Life: Following Jesus in the Second Half”

#5621

SURRENDER BRINGS POWER

“Before the Lord we bow,
The God who reigns above,
And rules the world below,
Boundless in power and love;
Our thanks we bring
In joy and praise,
Our hearts we raise
To heaven's high King.”  (Francis Scott Key)

When we are contrite, when we are submitting, we kneel, expressing with our bodies what is in our hearts. When a subject comes before his king, what does he do to humble himself? He kneels to acknowledge that he is in the presence of his master. When a believer in any religion comes to pray to his God, what does he do? He kneels to acknowledge that he is in the presence of his master. When a man asks a woman to become his wife, what does he do? He gets down on one knee to acknowledge… well, you get the idea.

Bent low in surrender. Jesus understood that if you want to experience victory, you must start in surrender. Surrender brings power, and the need to surrender is deeply tied to Jesus’ offer of living in the flow of the Spirit. You receive power through the act of surrender that you cannot obtain any other way; you receive freedom through submission that you will otherwise never know. 

-- Adapted from John Ortberg in “The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God’s Best Version of You”

#5458

CALLING ORDINARY SAINTS

“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things -- and the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God -- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’”  (1 Corinthians 1:26-31 NIV)

The church and the world need saints. They need saints more than they need more canny politicians, more brilliant scientific discoveries, more grossly overpaid executives and [professional athletes], more clever entertainers and talk-show hosts. Are there any on the horizon…, either of the extraordinary or the ordinary kind? I think there are. Maybe I should say that there are saints "aborning" by God's grace. [Douglas Steere described "saints" as] those whose lives have been irradiated by God's grace, who seek not to be safe but to be faithful, who have learned how to get along in adversity, who are joyful, who are dream-filled, and, above all, who are prayerful. That is what the church and the world need most. It begins with you.

-- E. Glenn Hinson in “Spiritual Preparation for Christian Leadership”

#5452

UNEARNED AND UNDESERVED

“For it is by grace [God’s remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ] that you have been saved [actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life] through faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God; not as a result of [your] works [nor your attempts to keep the Law], so that no one will [be able to] boast or take credit in any way [for his salvation].”  (Ephesians 2:8-9 Amplified Bible)

Salvation is worth working for. It is worth one’s going around the world on one’s hands and knees, climbing its mountains, crossing its valleys, swimming its rivers, going through all manner of hardship in order to attain it. But we do not get it that way. It is to the one who [simply and humbly] believes [in Christ]. 

-- Dwight Lyman Moody

#5351

IN THE LIKENESS OF HUMANITY

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8 ESV)

Our earthly existence takes on new meaning when we remember that God [in Christ] chose to put on our humanity and chose to wear that humanity as an ordinary working man.

Our ordinary existence is not so ordinary when we remember that God chose this existence to give us a true picture of the divine. Therefore there are no unimportant moments in any lifetime.  All are precious gifts of opportunity to know and serve the One who made us and chose to stand with us and like us in the gift of life. 

-- Rueben P. Job in “A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God” (Nashville, Tenn.: Upper Room Books, 2003, Used with permission)

#5350

REMAINING HUMBLE

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  (Zechariah 9:9)

Corrie ten Boom was once asked if it were difficult for her to remain humble. Her reply was simple. “When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments onto the road, and singing praises, do you think that for one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him?” She continued, “If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in His glory, I give Him all the praise and all the honor.” 

-- Mark Schaeufele, from a sermon entitled “A Messiah Who Serves”

#5325

SELF-SACRIFICIAL LOVE

Jesus prayed, “All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.”  (John 17:10 NKJV)

How was Jesus glorified? The Bible is pretty clear that Jesus was glorified through service, sacrificial love, and eventual death on the cross.

In Philippians 2:5-9 Paul said that Jesus “emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave.” He reminded Christians that Jesus “humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death… Therefore God also highly exalted Him.” Paul suggests that we ought to have the same mind, attitude, and disposition as Christ…

Jesus is glorified in us inasmuch as we imitate His self-sacrificial love. If we want to grow spiritually, our lives must be all about dying to self, sacrificing self for our brothers and sisters, emptying ourselves, and taking the form of servants.

That is how the world will know that we belong to Jesus. That is how Jesus is glorified in us. But it’s certainly not easy. 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: a Spiritual Journey for Men”

#5191

 

JUSTICE AND MERCY - Part 2

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  (Micah 6:8 NIV)

You can’t have one without the other. But just as we so often separate evangelism and social action, many in the Church today divide justice and mercy as well. Even worse, they secularize these holy terms. Conservatives seem to emphasize justice over mercy, then compound the problem by adopting the secular definition of justice, that is, punishing wrongdoers and seeing that everyone “gets his due.” So every man, woman, and child must carry his or her own weight -- no matter how heavy the odds against them -- as if poverty could only be God’s judgment and punishment for indolence.

Meanwhile, many a liberal latches onto mercy, believing it requires him to provide food, shelter, clothes, and entertainment for anyone who cannot provide for themselves. So justice and mercy have been divorced from one another, and Christians take up sides, choosing their church -- not to mention their political party -- according to a destructive dichotomy.

This false dichotomy between justice and mercy creates unhealthy extremes in our political and social policies in the United States. I think it is because believers have not stood in the gap. The church has too often bought into the secular definitions of these godly terms, thus ruining the possibility of a witness of what our Lord requires of us -- to do justice and to love mercy. Nor have we been a particularly convincing witness of “walking humbly” with our God. 

-- Charles Colson in an article entitled “Doing Justice, Loving Mercy, Walking Humbly” in “Discipleship Journal” No. 63

#5183

HUMBLE RECOGNITION

"But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’”  (James 4:6 BSB)

In his Guildhall Address in London on June 12, 1945 Dwight David Eisenhower remarked, "Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and sacrifices of his friends." I think the same could be said of the believer who receives eternal life earned in the blood of his Leader and the sacrifice of his Friend... Jesus Christ. In both cases, the recipient is humbled in the recognition that he did not earn it for himself. 

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson

#5117

THE RENOWNED JESUS

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death -- even death on a cross!”  (Philippians 2:5-8 NIV)

What man ever had more renown?  The whole Jewish people foretell Jesus before His coming.  The Gentile people worship Him after His coming.  The two peoples, Gentile and Jewish, regard Him as their centre.

And yet what man enjoys this renown less?  Of thirty-three years, He lives thirty without appearing. For three years He passes as an impostor; the priests and the chief people reject Him; His friends and His nearest relatives despise Him. Finally, He dies, betrayed by one of His own disciples, denied by another, and abandoned by all.

What part, then, has He in this renown?  Never had man so much renown; never had man more ignominy.  All that renown was only of use to us, to help us to recognize Him; it was of no use to Him. 

-- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) in “Pensées”

#4897

THE MODEL OF HUMILITY

“You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.”  (Philippians 2:5-8 NLT)

Jesus was humble. Perhaps this was His most outstanding characteristic. Imagine if you were God -- equal with the Father, sharing glory with Him, having every privilege of being God -- and then you became a human and laid aside all those privileges. Imagine becoming the servant of all and being God hidden in the obscurity of humanity.

His humility was expressed most when He became a man and died on the cross. He never insisted on His rights and privileges to be honored, understood or viewed rightly, but He emptied Himself of His reputation. He was content to be seen as ordinary and did not seek esteem. Think about embracing a life of weakness, poverty, shame, homelessness, rejection, and pain. We realize this when we study Isaiah 53 and see Jesus as the suffering servant. Jesus had lowliness of heart.

It’s easy for us to say we’re humble and broken until the real test comes, and we are put in a humbling position. We wonder, “Why aren’t we recognized?” It doesn’t feel good. We react and don’t like it. We want to be important and are often so proud. But Jesus became nothing during His life on earth, and He gives us His example so that we may follow in His steps. In fact, the only character trait that He proclaimed about Himself was His humility. Jesus didn’t put on humility to just accomplish a task on earth. Humility is part of His eternal nature. As we understand His humility it should produce admiration, inspiration, and confidence in us. In His lowliness of heart we find rest for our souls.

-- Adapted from Debbie Przybylski in an article entitled “How Jesus Modeled Humility”


#4814

JOY TO THE WORLD

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room and heaven and nature sing.”

Nobody would have expected the great King of all to arrive like that. All the royalty in Grimm’s Fairy Tales arrive in carriages drawn by a team of white horses. Can you believe that your Lord and Master arrived on earth through the birth process? And had nothing to wear but strips of cloth? And was laid in a manger (i.e., an animal’s feed trough)?

Does the humility of the divine entrance disappoint you? discourage you? offend you? Were you expecting trumpets? armies? silks, ermine, golden mace, jewel-studded crowns? If you were near that cattle pen that night, would you have bowed down in worship?

Yes, we would! If God helped frantic parents and shocked shepherds and wealthy Magi from the East to see their Messiah in the Baby, he would have found a way to turn on the lights in our brains as well. People of earth, receive your King! Each Christmas is practice for the moment of Christ’s second coming, when “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:10-11)

Prepare a place for Christ in your heart. Sing! Let everyone in your world know that you are happy that Jesus came all that way to claim you.

-- Adapted from “An Advent Playlist: Hymn-Based Devotions”

#4741

JESUS’ HUMBLE ACT

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death -- even death on a cross.”  (Philippians 2:5-8 NRSV)

When we look again at Jesus' humble act of foot washing [at the Last Supper], we see why the disciples were unable to immediately grasp the significance of the act. Jesus lowered Himself into the position of a lowly slave, He served like a slave, He washed the disciples' feet like a lowest-of-the-low slave, because ultimately He was preparing to die the dehumanizing death of a slave. In essence this is the connection made in Philippians 2:5-8.

As He washed out dirt from between the disciples' toes, Jesus performed a parable of the cross. The disciples could not see the symbolic anticipation, not here, not now. The full explanation for why Jesus washed their feet would only become clear after the substitutionary atonement of the Savior on Good Friday. Then they would look back and understand the act of deep humility in the cross that brought us a once-for-all, head-to-toe, cleansing from our sin.

-- Tony Reinke in an article entitled “The Creator On His Knees”

#4570